Baozi had been incredibly sensible since childhood, which was heart - wrenching. Even when wronged, he would comfort her. Now that Baozi was being targeted because of her, how could she back down?
Xiao Jinghan hugged the person in his arms tightly. "Why didn't you tell me earlier?"
"I was too busy and forgot," Yi Qing replied simply.
"So you went to the Floating Cloud Cottage to investigate the connection between Xue Bozheng and the Duke of Xie?" Xiao Jinghan had been wondering why Yi Qing suddenly wanted to go to the Floating Cloud Cottage.
"Yeah."
"Okay, let's sort things out." Xiao Jinghan let go of Yi Qing.
The two of them wrote down all the information they knew and then organized it accordingly, especially the case of the fraud conspiracy that year.
"Have you noticed..." Yi Qing pointed at the timeline. "When the Duke of Xie wrote 'Where to Go', it was after Xue Bozheng's first failure in the imperial examination. When he wrote 'Questioning the Vast Sky', it was when Xue Bozheng came in last in the second examination but didn't get an official position. When he wrote 'Sailing Against the Current', it was when Xue Bozheng left the Yunshan Academy and built the Floating Cloud Cottage."
Xiao Jinghan was also a bit surprised. "What does this indicate?"
"The time span of these three Yuefu poems is so long, but they clearly seem to be written by the same person. Although the state of mind was different at that time, I saw the Sanshe Collection in Xue Bozheng's room today. The writing style is completely different. Moreover, after the Duke of Xie wrote these three Yuefu poems, he destroyed what he had written before. And after Xue Bozheng built the Floating Cloud Cottage, he stopped writing. Why would a person who stopped writing build a private school? This is 'Sailing Against the Current'. No matter what, we have to take a chance."
"You mean..." Xiao Jinghan gasped.
"I don't have evidence yet, but judging from the abnormal behavior of these two people, there must be something wrong." Yi Qing said firmly. "We also need to thoroughly investigate the matter of the Duke of Xie killing the entire Guo family."
"Okay." Xiao Jinghan nodded and put away what they had written. "You go to sleep first. I'll go out for a while."
"Where are you going?" Yi Qing grabbed Xiao Jinghan's lapel.
"To find Xu Maozhi."
Yi Qing nodded. Xu Maozhi was an expert in this field. As long as there were any clues, Xu Maozhi would surely be able to get to the bottom of it.
Early in the morning, Xu Maozhi went to the Duke of Xie's mansion on the pretext of investigating the assassination of the duke and cleaned out all the things in the duke's study.
"What are you doing? The duke was assassinated. Why are you taking the duke's things?" Madam Xie blocked the people.
"Madam Xie, the Duke of Xie is the leader of the literati in the world. His assassination may very well be related to his literary works. We need to investigate clearly to avoid any further danger to the duke," Xu Maozhi said plausibly.
"I think you just covet the duke's calligraphy and paintings," Madam Xie said sharply.
Xu Maozhi wasn't angry. "Madam Xie, don't worry. We've made a detailed inventory of all the things we're taking. If there's nothing wrong, we'll return them all."
"Why can't you just check them here?"
"Fine, but if the people from the Supreme Court stay in the Duke of Xie's mansion every day, are you sure that's okay, Madam Xie?"
Madam Xie thought for a while. "Be gentle. The duke's things are very precious." With that, she pushed Xu Maozhi away.
Xu Maozhi staggered and bumped into a wooden carving frame on one side. The wooden carving tilted, and a secret cabinet was opened. Everyone was shocked. They didn't expect there to be a secret cabinet in the Duke of Xie's study.
"Come on, move things gently," Xu Maozhi said, overjoyed.
Madam Xie was also stunned. When did the Duke of Xie have a secret cabinet? "No, I need to check these things myself."
"Sure." Xu Maozhi told his men to wait on one side.
Madam Xie thought there would be something precious inside, but it turned out to be all calligraphy and paintings by a man named Xue Bozheng. After looking at two of them, she lost interest.
Xu Maozhi was extremely excited. The Duke of Xie had collected so many of Xue Bozheng's calligraphy and paintings. No one would believe that there was no connection between the two. So he told his men to take them all away.
Yi Qing saw Xiaoran playing with wooden carvings while she sat on one side looking through the Records of the World, trying to find out where the sea almond tree was. Unfortunately, there was too little information, and the descriptions were rather vague. She got impatient after looking for a while.
"Madam, Lord Bai is here," Ruohong bowed.
Yi Qing turned her head and saw Bai Chengyi looking rather annoyed.
"What's wrong, Big Brother Bai?" Yi Qing thought Bai Chengyi must have come for something.
Bai Chengyi directly sat opposite Yi Qing. "These days, your mother and I have been preparing for our wedding. I didn't know that such a big thing had happened to you and Xiaohan. What are you going to do?"
"What can I do?" Yi Qing didn't seem to care. "After that day, hasn't anyone gone to bother my mother?"
"After that day, I told the Duke of Di's mansion to turn away all visitors. Your mother finally agreed to marry me. I'm afraid that if someone says something, she'll change her mind again."
"Smart move," Yi Qing gave a thumbs - up.
"Where's Xiaohan?" Bai Chengyi didn't see Xiao Jinghan when he came in.
"He's probably busy dealing with this matter."
"Let me know if you need any help."
"Just don't let my mother know about this," Yi Qing thought that if her mother knew, she would probably be the first one to come crying.
"Don't worry. The duke will be back in a few days. Let's see what those people will say then."
Yi Qing didn't pin her hopes on her grandfather.
"There's something..." Bai Chengyi forced a laugh.
"Just say it," Yi Qing knew it wasn't going to be good news.
"I told your mother that I'd start preparing the things for our wedding, but when the shops outside heard it was for the Di Mansion, they wouldn't sell to me. I'm willing to pay, after all," Bai Chengyi said angrily.
Hearing Bai Chengyi say this, Yi Qing's expression darkened. This was the same tactic used against Baozi. "Big Brother Bai, make a list of everything you need. I'll get them for you."
"I can't be so rude. Let me know how much it costs later," Bai Chengyi grinned from ear to ear.
Yi Qing thought he couldn't be more hypocritical. He probably came today just for this matter.
Bai Chengyi left happily. Yi Qing turned her head and saw that Xiaoran had pieced all the wooden carvings together.
"Is this a jigsaw puzzle?" Yi Qing was a bit surprised and squatted down beside Xiaoran.
Xiaoran had accidentally snapped two wooden carvings together and then started trying one by one. He really managed to piece them all together.
"What is this supposed to be?" Yi Qing turned it over. "Oh my god!"
Previously, Yu Yike had told her that Xue Bozheng carved from the first to the tenth day of the lunar month and spent the rest of the time looking for wood. Yi Qing had thought they were different pieces of wood, but when put together, she found it was actually a whole piece of wood.
"Miao'er, turn all the wooden carvings over," Yi Qing rolled up her sleeves.
Trying to piece them together one by one from the front was too slow. If it was really the same piece of wood, they could piece it together quickly by following the grain.
Xiaoran also got excited. The three of them didn't take long to piece all the wooden carvings together. Then they framed it with a wooden frame and turned it over. It was really all put together.
"Mother is so amazing," Xiaoran hugged Yi Qing's leg.
Yi Qing also thought she was amazing. Then, like a person with obsessive - compulsive disorder, she noticed that a few of the wooden carvings were a bit higher. She thought she hadn't pieced them together properly. When she couldn't press them down, she pulled them out and found that there were numbers on them.